July, 2017

now browsing by month

“For centuries, wars and climatic catastrophes have ravaged the surface of the earth, making it uninhabitable by all but the mutated and monstrous. Humanity, searching for refuge, combs the world’s oceans and finds sanctuary…and more. Welcome to Polaris!”

– POLARIS, the RPG.

POLARIS is a French tabletop RPG, set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi atmosphere, where survival is first and foremost. What attracted me was the sci-fi with a seasoning of horror and weirdness setting. Thanks to a very successful Kickstarter Campaign in early 2016, Black Book Editions are finally able to expand the product line and publish this game for the first time ever in an English language edition and now it has begun to wash up on our shores across the pond!

As you might have guessed from above description, the world of Polaris is a dark, cold, wet place. Mankind in its folly has rendered the surface of the earth uninhabitable, and even with the help of some ominous benefactors known as The Geneticians, they fled beneath the waves to survive in any way possible. However Mankind’s baser instincts gets the best of them and before long, war and bloodshed begin to stain the seas as red as the toxic surface! New factions rise and new grudges evolve as the water becomes spotted with the blood of both the innocent and the guilty. Unknown centuries of squabbling ensue ever diminishing resources, and it seems the end is nigh until a phenomenon known as The Polaris Effect instills select individuals with powers that science cannot adequately define or explain.

There is zero question that Polaris is gorgeous. The layout and art are a testament to the care and craftsmanship the good people at Black Box Editions bring to the table. The world map is beautiful and very impressive – something big happened to the Earth’s surface, and sizable chunks of the surface are completely submerged. There’s an ocean through the middle of North America and Australia both, Greenland’s heart is submerged, and much of South America is gone. It’ll be very interesting to see if we get to find out what the heck happened to the world, or if it’ll be a mystery of the ages…

The default game setting takes place after all of this has transpired and more, The Geneticians are in hiding…or gone. The great city of Equinox is the oceans last best hope for peace…or disaster as it is the hub of all the political powers and controlled by the powers who wield the Polaris effect!

In this post-apocalyptic sci-fi atmosphere, where survival is key the Player Characters can take the role of the usual post-apocalyptic types: mercenaries, soldiers, doctors, as well as devotees of The Cult of Trident, whose members tend to be proficient in the manipulation of The Polaris Effect to create amazing feats. The group can encounter as much or as little political and cold war intrigue since there are a several major powers settled about the globe, as well as groups can either align themselves with one of the smaller geographically locked factions or open the engines up and travel The Seven Seas in search of adventure. But beware for under the sea man isn’t the only thing that lurks beneath the surface as it is so not safe to go back in the water as mysterious monsters, mutants and nature await the adventurous and foolhardy.

One thing I could so see one of our groups doing is use something like Mutant Year Zero’s Ark rules to build the groups own community under the sea and doing missions to help the community as a whole to grow and evolve.

Here is a quick over view of the books and items out as of this post, don’t worry I will so do more detailed and visual reviews over the next few months as all of these products are all beautifully illustrated and laid out, and that includes the PDFs

Mystery, Underwater combat and Vehicles, Mermaids (Not those kind!) and other sea creatures, Tech and most importantly fixing gear, and ‘Advanced Rules’!

Together both rulebooks do come with a lovely cardstock ‘Slipcase’ to keep them both safely in. Between the two you have everything your need to play the Polaris RPG! Together over 500 pages of full cover loveliness!

Another lovely hardcover book weighing in at 48 pages, that goes further into the equally mysterious and majestic city of Equinox. This neutral Freeport of a floating city in the sea is home to the ‘Cult of the Trident’ the systems mysterious users of the Polaris Effect! It does a good job of giving a ton of good plot hooks as well as including the adventure “Industrial Espionage”.

I LOVE these for you Polaris players! This 16-page full color Character folio have EVERYTHING a player needs to play including rules and charts from Core Book 1! Just check out the publisher’s description:

A gaming aid for all Players of Polaris RPG! It introduces in a few pages the world and timeline of the game, and describes the major factions and the most important nations of the Deep. The helpful summary of Character Creation and basic Combat Rules helps players and GM’s alike speed up the gameplay!

On the 8 pages dedicated entirely to your Character’s abilities and equipment as well as your progression you get plenty of space to detail your Adventurer!

The woodfree paper lets you write and erase on the pages! This booklet is aimed at Polaris RPG players, supplied in packs of five Character Files, shrink wrapped together to accommodate a whole gaming table.

This pack contains 16 different location maps where underwater adventurers are likely to roam! Each map exists in a version with full captions, and a spoiler free plain version so players can discover it during gameplay.

Abolish an Ancient Evil Threatening Devastation in this Adventure for the World s Greatest Roleplaying Game Called by the Elder Elemental Eye to serve, four corrupt prophets have risen from the depths of anonymity to claim mighty weapons with direct links to the power of the elemental princes

The group gets really tactical and pulls some stealthy black ops and breaking down some doors

“Seek theropy?!?!”
“BURN IT, BURN IT!”
“Look its a nuclear Rat!”
“It’s a dwarven thing.”
“Dungeonering…its when you roll a history”
“…Skinny…” {Skinny stands for ‘I tell the group evrything i know’}
“Send the Rat to do some Recon.”
“Something bad must have happened…”
“I’m 33, so”
“So your the deversion, so…”
“We…could…split the team…so…”
“Ya, what do they look like?”
“…Seems to be human.”
“I’ll stealth-aly open the door”
“So, we have our plan?”
“I’m the spirit of dwarvespast!”
“Well he’s dead now!”

Shadows of the Rebellion! Galactic center, or Coruscant as it was call in the age of the Republic, has always been a hot bed of of political and economic struggle but now held tightly in the grasp of the Imperial power block those who dwell in the Shadow of the Empire must become….Shadows of the Rebellion!

Just like our Sunday night Scoundrels we’ll be podcasting this game at Tucson Games and Gadgets Tucson mall store on Sundays, work might be making this a Biweekly game though!

Post-apocalyptic is a Genre I’ve always enjoyed and thankfully its still pretty big these days, but Black Book Editions‘ Polaris gets a special points for its focus on a part of the world we don’t get to pay enough attention to – the oceans that cover the vast majority of earth. As a big fan of 20,000 leagues under the sea, SeaQuest DSV and Voyage to the bottom of the sea I was definitely looking forward to this game! Honestly, no matter what the source of the of End the world is, the survivors will almost certainly need to look to the seas for survival, jus don’t jump on a ship like in Fear the Walking dead!

“For centuries, wars and climatic catastrophes have ravaged the surface of the earth, making it uninhabitable by all but the mutated and monstrous. Humanity, searching for refuge, combs the worlds oceans and finds sanctuary…and more. Welcome to Polaris!”

From the French publishers of the award-winning Pathfinder RPG comes the Polaris RPG. A brand new post-apocalyptic sci-fi RPG system and setting from Black Book Editions.

Take part in the political intrigues, action, exploration and the quest to survive. An all new and revised english version with over 400 full-color pages, split in two books that are sold in a slip case.

Core Rulebook : 1
280 page, hardcover, full-color
• The World of the Deep – Setting
• Character Creation
• Game System

The Artwork is fantastic in these books as well as the free quick start on DriveThruRPG! Check these out and let me know what you think? we most likely be doing a few one shot games in a share universe but if you’d like a regular podcast let us know!

Abolish an Ancient Evil Threatening Devastation in this Adventure for the World s Greatest Roleplaying Game Called by the Elder Elemental Eye to serve, four corrupt prophets have risen from the depths of anonymity to claim mighty weapons with direct links to the power of the elemental princes

Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention 6 is America’s first and only Steampunk convention and festival that takes place in a western-themed town. After incredibly successful events in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 we’re very excited to make this year’s convention larger then ever before!

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.

Steampunk perhaps most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era’s perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art.[citation needed] Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or of the modern authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephen Hunt, and China Miéville.

Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group.

Shadows of the Rebellion! Galactic center, or Coruscant as it was call in the age of the Republic, has always been a hot bed of of political and economic struggle but now held tightly in the grasp of the Imperial power block those who dwell in the Shadow of the Empire must become….Shadows of the Rebellion!

Just like our Sunday night Scoundrels we’ll be podcasting this game at Tucson Games and Gadgets Tucson mall store on Sundays, work might be making this a Biweekly game though!

Theres no episode up yet but wanted to let you know to keep an eye on our Patreon page for polls and updates

Hey guys looks like we really did upset the cult of the crushing wave as we recently had a flood at our house and it’s kind of affecting getting editing done this week but we should be all recovered by the weekend and back to normal.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and made it safely through the weekend!
Kellie had a great time at WesterCon this weekend with Madame Askew joining her entourage for all the fun and excitement there. As they got into town late last night I can’t wait to here their stories of the Con.
This Sunday we had an avwesome time at Tucson Games and Gadgets Tucson mall store with our new Age of Rebellion group going under the code name Shadows of Rebellion. We had a huge group of 9 players who all love Star Wars and are really getting into being a Rebel cell network, the group has a huge and great spread of skills and careers with two force users, a nice number of rebels and their chain of command has them following a Toydarian Agitator. The group did a great job building their base and going after their first mission with exuberance and rebel zeal!
I can’t wait to get the session 0-2 up on the Creative Play and Podcast Network Podcast next weekend (Repairs willing!). Theirs so many projects I want to get to and finish up from the earlier part of the year as well. With D&D Journey of the Fifth Edition hitting its 3rd year anniversary I am planning a Kickstarter to see about getting some things going and maybe more art work commissions from fans and friends!
By the way thank you for everyone who voted on our Patreon site, and as always all votes are open to everyone not just Patrons (though I am sneaking in Patron only polls soon) all polls run until the next Friday after they are posted since most the games are played on the weekend.

Though I will be putting a two week poll up for the next One shot game we should try out, I do have a few different Kickstartered games we need to do a one shot for and this summer is a perfect time for it!

Find more about John Paul Ried and his great books and groups we talked about at the below links:https://www.amazon.com/John-Paul-Ried/e/B00Z4OW910palamarin adventures llc at http://www.palamaranadventures.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/PalamaranAdventuresLLC/?pnref=about.overviewImperial outpost games https://www.facebook.com/imperial.outpost.7/ Here’s the teaser for the book that starterd itall!Reckless Ambitions (The Medford Family Chronicles Book 1)The beloved, hi […]

Crit Hit! is Phoenix’s Tabletop Gaming Convention! featuring board/card games & tabletop RPG’s. Returning for our 3rd year July 13-15 at the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Phoenix. Now back for our 3rd year and we are going bigger and better than ever before! From Role Playing Games, Board /Card Games, to panels and night […]

What makes a protagonist great? What makes a good hero? I personally enjoy a hero with some real world issues and circumstance. Also I apologize in advance for the sick sniffling crowd around me I tried to clean it up as best I could. Our Panelists: Catherine Wells https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/528175.Catherine_Wells Ed Hoornaert (Mr. Valentine) https://www.amazon.com/Edward-Hoornaert/e/B001K8HWVQ Natalie […]

We crack open the beautiful Tin of Outpost Siberia!*NSFW*Join Jaaz, Kellie, Joclyne and I as we learn a little russian, we have some drinks and plenty of ‘In soviet russia…’ jokes! Join us as we play our international group of outpost adventurers. *Please be advised we were provided this game by IDW Games who sent […]

Join local artists at the Douglas Art Gallery for a Steampunk Adventure! The Gentleman Robot, Baron Johann Kharza, and friends present their creations at this open house. Their Exhibit will be on display the entire month of January! The group had a great introduction to steampunk Paul Aka Baron Johann Kharza @JohannKharza https://www.facebook.com/JohannKharza/ John Aka […]